Behold ancient high school yearbook photos of Super Bowl heroes

When the dust has finally settled around Super Bowl 50 on Sunday night, either Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning or Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton will be hailed as a hero.

They'll be cemented in the Super Bowl pantheon alongside legends like Joe Montana, Emmitt Smith and Charles Haley. But let's go back even further — to a time when those gridiron stars of yore were just awkward teens with funny-looking high school yearbook photos.

Classmates.com trawled their archives and came up with some excellent pulls, which they then passed on to us and are presented below. From Montana rocking bell-bottoms, to Deion Sanders already looking ready for primetime — these are some serious blasts from the past.

1. Joe Montana

Image: Lennox McLennon/Associated Press

Before Joe Cool won four Super Bowls and three Super Bowl MVP awards with the San Francisco 49ers, he was a star at Ringgold High School in western Pennsylvania. Here's his senior pic.

Here's a more casual shot of Joe rocking classic '70s style.

And here's the future Hall of Fame quarterback playing baseball in some terrifically old-school sweatpants.

2. Emmitt Smith

Image: Tom DiPace/Associated Press

The Dallas Cowboys icon and three-time Super Bowl champ attended Escambia High School in Pensacola, Florida, before moving on to the University of Florida and then the NFL. This is him already looking like a grown man as a high school junior.

3. Deion Sanders

Image: Tom DiPace/Associated Press

Sanders accomplished the remarkable feat of winning consecutive Super Bowls with different teams in 1995 and 1996, first doing so with the 49ers and then doing it again with the Cowboys. Before all that, though, he starred in multiple sports at Florida's North Fort Myers High School and took a senior portrait that already boasted his trademark swagger.

4. Larry Allen

Image: David Phillip/Associated Press

Among the greatest offensive linemen of his generation, Allen won Super Bowl XXX with Cowboys in 1996. Here he is, first as a high school freshmen then again as a high school senior. What a difference a few years makes.

Allen is also a former homecoming king. Glory days!

5. Charles Haley

Image: Paul Spinelli/Associated Press

Haley is one of the most menacing defensive players in NFL history. He also won five Super Bowls with the 49ers and Cowboys between 1989 and 1996. Once upon a time, though, the 6-foot-5, 250-pounder was just a (relatively) little high school sophomore.

Haley also played some basketball (we're guessing not at point guard).

6. Lawrence Taylor

Image: NFL Photos/Associated Press

Another legendary defender, this is Taylor as a sophomore at Lafayette High School in Virginia.

7. Ray Lewis

Image: Allen Kee/Associated Press

Lewis, currently an ESPN commentator, led the Baltimore Ravens to Super Bowl wins in 2001 and 2013. Here he is as a youngster at Kathleen High School in Lakeland, Florida.

8. Desmond Howard

Image: Kevin Terrell/Associated Press

This is Howard, the MVP of Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, as a senior at St. Joseph High School in Cleveland, Ohio.

9. Ronnie Lott

Image: NFL Photos/Associated Press

Lott helped lead the 49ers to four Super Bowl wins between 1982 and 1990. In this photo of him as a teenager, you can already see a striking resemblance to the feared defensive back he would become.

Sports Fails

1. Golf Cart Fail

This runaway vehicle wreaked minor on-field havoc following a high school football championship in Texas last December. But a heroic bystander hopped aboard and put on the brakes.

No casualties occurred, and the clip immediately became Internet legend.

2. Penalty Kick Fail

Watch out for the ricochet, goalie! This kid gets it in the right in the chops.

3. Mascot on Rollerblades Fail

What happens when you put an inflatable dinosaur on rollerblades and ask it to skate down a flight of stairs? Amazingness, that's what.

4. Flopping Fail

In sports, to "flop" is to exaggerate the force of contact in hopes of drawing a favorable call from officials. But you've got to time it much, much better than this guy does.

5. Hockey Celebration Fail

Apparently, if you hug a member of the opposite team after scoring a goal in hockey, you will get punched in the face.

6. Innocent Bystander Fail

This kid is just in the wrong place at the wrong time...to the benefit of the rest of us.

7. Representing Your School Fail

College football mascots are supposed to represent their schools in a fun, positive light — which doesn't typically include picking fights. Here, the University of Oregon's duck slams the University of Houston's cougar.

Bonus points for the sick elbow drop, though.

8. Weightlifting Fail

Not saying we could successfully lift 432 pounds above our heads, but dang, that looks painful.

German weightlifter Matthias Steiner dropped this massive barbell on his neck during the London Olympics this summer, but escaped serious injury.

9. Trampoline Dunk Fail

Sometimes, when you fail, you actually win.

10. Hurdling Fail

Why jump over hurdles when you could just RUN STRAIGHT THROUGH THEM?

File under: Never, Ever Gets Old.

11. Paying Attention Fail

After what could best be described as an "optimistic" shot attempt in a game last season, NBA center JaVale McGee showed some nice hustle getting back on defense. Only problem? His team still had the ball.

12. Judgment Fail

But that wasn't McGee's only legendary moment. Here, he shows why it's not a good idea to try dunking from the free throw line mid-game.

13. Olympic Promo Fail

For some reason, London's Olympic promotions this summer involved hanging Mayor Boris Johnson on a zipline while waving a pair of tiny flags.

Then he got stuck halfway through and it was pretty much the best, funniest, awkwardest thing that could have happened.

14. Grand Slam Celebration Fail

Major Leaguer Kendry Morales broke his lower left leg while celebrating a game-winning grand slam in 2010. This edited video provides the before, during and after rundown.

15. Slam Dunk Fail

See? White guys can jump? It's just the landing that's the hard part.

16. High Dive Fail

The announcer here sums it up perfectly. She calls this attempt from the 1992 Olympics "an absolute failed dive."

17. Piggyback Ride Fail

What begins as an innocent enough piggyback ride atop a fuzzy mascot turns into a pretty epic collision — and YouTube gold.

18. Long Jump Fail

Dude! If you're gonna pump up the crowd like that, you can't just faceplant into the sand.

19. Touchdown Celebration Fail

When you think about it, is there any better way to celebrate a touchdown than by pegging an unsuspecting spectator in the face? Bonus points for originality, at least.

20. Pro Golfer Fail

You'd think a professional golfer could put the ball in the hole with less than 16 strokes. Kevin Na — and the rest of the world — found out otherwise on this par-four hole at the 2011 Valero Texas Open.

21. Head-First Slide Fail

Well, that's one way of doing it...right?

22. Time Management Fail

Tie game, clock winding down — it's always better to get one last attempt up than just let the game go into overtime. A full court desperation heave with a 11 seconds to go is never the way to do it, however.

This classic gaffe by the University of Connecticut's Roscoe Smith came during a matchup of top teams in 2011.

23. Boogie Boarding Fail

Its veracity may be suspect, but this 2008 YouTube classic has more than 12.7 million views, despite a mind-numbing soundtrack.

24. Sportsmanship Fail

The summer of 2011 was a tough time for NBA star LeBron James. It was full of lingering ill-will for his decision to the leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and snarky schadenfreude over his initial failure to win a championship with the Miami Heat.

So it makes perfect sense that he'd let off some steam by viciously dunking on a tiny kid at summer camp, right? That's what happens at the 0:43 mark of this video.

25. Standing on a Basketball Hoop Fail

We're not quite sure why this mascot thought standing on top of a basketball rim was a good idea.

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